Apple’s $20 million tech company buy hints at even better iPhone cameras in the future

Starting with the iPhone 3GS, Apple has continually improved on its camera technology with every iteration of the iPhone. Despite only shooting 8-megapixel pictures, the cameras on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are widely regarded as excellent. Even so, Apple continues to improve its cameras, proven by its latest acquisition of a company called LinX.

What does this mean for the future of Apple’s cameras? “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” Apple told the The Wall Street Journal. Not very helpful, but we can still speculate.

LinX is an Israel-based camera technology company that builds “miniature multi-aperture cameras designed for mobile devices.” The company also builds cameras for tablets and ultrabooks, hinting that Apple looks to not only improve the camera infrastructure in the iPhone, but also in its line of iPad and Mac products.

On its website, LinX says it is able to build cameras that can fit in the body of a typical smartphone, yet offer DSLR-like performance. The company’s cameras also collects depth information of the scene, a technique introduced on several smartphones recently, including the HTC One M8.

Apple purchased LinX for approximately $20 million, which shows that, as previously mentioned, Apple looks to up its camera game in the near future. LinX’s camera technologies could allow Apple products with cameras to have better low-light performance and improved light sensitivity. This line of thinking would fit well, given rumors that Apple’s next flagship could include a dual-lens DSLR-quality camera.